


What's better than this

by CarrotSticks



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Balcony Scene, Chat Noir Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Lady Noir, F/F, Mouse Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Multimouse, Not putting your shoes on people's blankets, this whole fic is a thinly veiled overlong pun on 'cat and mouse'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24299935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarrotSticks/pseuds/CarrotSticks
Summary: Lady noir makes a late night visit to marinette's balcony, and marinette gets carried away.
Relationships: multinoire
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	What's better than this

Lady noire hadn’t been intending to visit marinette, even if she had been exceptionally helpful with todays battle as multimouse. Her house simply acted like a lodestone for lady noire, whenever she went on night patrol, being close to her own home and smelling delicious at all hours of the day. Tonight in particular the bakery ovens had already been turned off for the night and their warm, yeasty smell abated, leaving lady noire with the smell of frying garlic and onions, which reminded her abruptly of her sparse dinner. She decided to stop by marinettes balcony and thank her for her work as the mouse earlier, and maybe score a couple pastries too, for the way home. She landed on the railing completly silent but made her steps heavier on purpose so marinette woudlnt be startled, but the girl didnt peek out of her skylight to greet her as she usually did. She also didnt respond when lady noire knocked on said skylight, and, well, marinette had once told her to make herself at home if she ever came to visit and marinette was absent. She was probably showering or getting a snack anyway, and shouldnt take long. So lady noire dropped down to st on the girls bed, keeping her boots clear of the blankets. After five minutes didnt turn up with the girl shed come to see, she dropped down from the loft and decided she might as well peek down into the house, at least shed be able to hear her whereabouts and reassure herself she hadnt managed to come visit on a night when marinette was out. What she heard from the hallway was neither total silence nor the shower running, but sniffling from where she figured the kitchen would be. Alarmed, she decided she would just have to risk marinettes parents spotting her and hurried to the kitchen. Marinette was leaning over the stove, rubbing at her face with the back of her wrist, back turned to lady noire. She cleared her throat before speaking, aware she was quiet even when she didnt mean to be, and if marinette was already crying she didnt want to frighten her on top of that.  
\- hi, little mouse.  
Marinette jumped at the sound, but turned around easily enough, scrubbing away the last of her tears.  
-lady noire! I didn’t hear you come in, did you have to wait for me too long?  
-not that long, but i heard you crying and came to see whats wrong.  
\- what, you- you heard me from up on the roof?  
\- i snuck into the hall after five minutes to check that you were alright, dont worry. you’re not that loud. In fact – she added with a sharp fanged grin,- you could say you’re quiet as a mouse.  
Marinette groaned at that, hastily looking away from the superhero’s mouth and turning back to the stove.  
\- that was terrible, and you didnt need to worry anyway. I was just chopping onions with poor ventilation.  
-mmhmm sure, just chopping onions she says. what’re you cooking then?  
-just making dinner for myself, my parents are out for their anniversary tonight. Actually, uh. Do you. I mean. Are you hungry? Um, do you like pasta?  
-im sure i’d like anything that you cooked, little mouse. Pasta sounds good, and it smells even better. Though I have to say I dropped in on you to thank you for helping us as multimouse today, and maybe beg a couple pastries off of you, I didn’t exactly come dressed for a date.  
She wiggled her brows as she said this, making marinette snort a laugh and flush faintly pink.  
\- let’s call this a casual occasion then. should’ve known you’d come here for food, you alley cat. But really, you’ll be doing me a favor. I really dont like eating alone.  
\- oh? Well then i’ll endeavor to be the very best dinner company you’ve ever had, princess.  
That did make marinette blush, though she busied herself with fetching a pot for the pasta water while trying to act like it hadn’t had any effect on her. As good as a challenge for lady noire to get a reaction out of her again, to be perfectly honest.

Dinner was a pleasant affair, despite marinette’s lingering awkwardness over the thought of it as a date. Lady noire had no such reservations, and had in fact found a couple tealights to decorate the table, and kept bumping the tips of her boots against marinette’s feet under it. Once their plates were cleared, marinette went to get dessert out of the fridge and lady noire used the moment to get her baton to play the lady and the tramp song, making her grin at the laugh she could hear from marinette in the kitchen. The girl was still smiling to herself as she came out bearing two small bowls of ice cream, indicating that lady noire should follow her from the table up into her bedroom, where there were cushions arranged on the floor and her computer had a movie queued up.  
\- wow, little mouse, you sure know how to woo a girl. Dinner and a movie? I should've at least brought you flowers, but I guess that’ll just have to be for next time.  
At the suggestion of a next time marinette almost tripped, fumbling the bowls for a long moment until lady noire caught her arm and removed them from her hands, face completely deadpan and eyes crinkling with amusement.  
\- and dont worry. Next time, dinner’s on me.  
She winked as she said it, and set their bowls down out of the way, patting the seat next to her invitingly.  
Marinette busied herself for a moment under pretense of getting the movie going, while she thought about it. Leaving aside that lady noire could hardly reveal her identity to her, and as such any social life while in costume was near impossible to sustain, what would a date with her be like? Would she take marinette out to dinner, invite her for a stroll in the park? Maybe she’d take advantage of her powers and vault them both over the rooftops of paris to find them a high-up, secluded spot to picnic in. maybe she’d show up on marinette’s balcony one night, like so many others, except that instead of nosing about her room and try to beg pastries off of her, she’d wait for marinette outside, and smile when she came out, and wrap an arm around her waist and take her to the highest part of the eiffel tower, where tourists couldn’t go, where nobody but superheroes could step, and she’d hold her hands and turn her around so marinette could look over the myriad lights of paris at night, and maybe once she’d had her fill and lady noire had taken her back home, she’d stop just as she was saying goodbye, and then she’d hesitate for a moment before leaning in to marinette and….- she was thinking about it way too hard now. She knew lady noire was mostly joking when she’d suggested taking her out on a date, but here they were, about to watch a movie in marinette’s room after dinner like she usually did with any other friend, no problem, without feeling even an ounce as flustered as she felt right now, and she was thinking about it. It surprised her how welcome she found the idea, all heartburn inducing nervous butterflies aside. She hadn’t even known lady noire for two months, and likely she would never know her in civilian form, and yet. 

She forcibly shook herself out of that train of thought, and realized with a start she’d been just standing there staring at the blank screen of her laptop for a full minute. Hastily she pressed play and sat down, wrapping herself in her favorite blanket, still not quite daring to look at her companion.

As much as she insisted to herself that it wouldn't happen, marinette kept thinking about it all through the movie, unable to pay attention to any of it, more focused on trying to look at lady noire indirectly, on the side of her leg pressed against the superhero’s knee, on the quiet hiss of her breath, audible over the movie’s noise only because they were sitting so close. Closer, in fact, than they’d been when marinette had sat down, she was sure. Actually, lady noire seemed to be in a similar state to marinette herself, judging by the way her eyes were fixed unmoving on the screen without actually taking anything in. Maybe not solely joking, then. 

Feeling reassured that she would be welcome, marinette allowed her body to slump to the side, bringing her closer to lady noire, who, to her credit, reacted only by wrapping her arm around marinette’s shoulders, acting like that was just her normal level of casual touch and not actually making her heart beat in her throat. They sat like that until the movie well and truly ended, credits finished scrolling and all. 

At that point lady noire could no longer pretend to be inmersed in it, but she wasn’t quite willing to unwrap herself from around marinette, so instead she brought her other arm up and made it a full hug, turning her face into marinette’s loose hair.  
-thank you for your help today, little mouse. And. For tonight as well. Maybe I should try coming around dinnertime more often, instead of visiting so late. Not that I don't love your pastries, but there really is nothing like a home cooked meal.  
-i don't mind if you visit late at night, kitty. And if you ever find yourself craving home cooking you can certainly come ask me. I had fun tonight.  
Marinette returned the hug as tightly as she was able to, wondering idly if lady noire didn’t usually have the time to eat at home. Did she just go through her days on snacks and takeout? She resolved to plan dinner with an extra serving from now on, just in case. She could always just take the leftovers to school for lunch the next day if lady noire didn’t show up, anyway.

Pulling away from her, lady noire grinned at marinette with her sharp teeth again, standing up and reaching a hand to pull marinette along.  
-glad you enjoyed yourself as much as I did, princess. Its getting quite late for this cat, but i’ll see you again soon, my little mouse. On sunday, maybe?  
Marinette could only nod, as lady noire was already climbing through her skylight with a last cheery wave at her. She’d never actually set a date for when they’d next see each other again, before.  
Well. she’d make sure to have some snacks ready to go on sunday, and maybe she’d even dress up nice, just in case.

**Author's Note:**

> listen do i know what's happening? is lady noir an alternate version of marinette? is she a whole new character? is she actually just a genderbent adrien? who knows. don't think about it too much. (but feel free to leave a comment if you liked it or if you are thinking too much about it, because me too honestly)


End file.
